


A House Full of Ghosts

by Aurora Cee (SC182)



Category: Fast and the Furious Series, The Fast and the Furious (2001)
Genre: Canon Character of Color, Character Study, Coda, Fix-It, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-18
Updated: 2014-01-18
Packaged: 2018-01-09 03:03:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1140686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SC182/pseuds/Aurora%20Cee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Brian never pushes and Dom appreciates that. Sometimes knowing the gravity of one’s mistakes is enough.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A House Full of Ghosts

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own the characters herein. They are the property of Universal Pictures, Justin Lin, Rob Cohen, and Gary S. Thompson. I'm just borrowing them for a moment. 
> 
> Thanks to icesamzero for the beta! 
> 
> Originally written in 2008.

Every Sunday, Dom wakes to the sound of church bells for mass and the sound of pots and pans clanging in the kitchen. He can pass through each room with his eyes closed and know exactly what’s there. The space here, in this tiny house somewhere along the  Pacific Coast in Mexico has grown to be just about as familiar as his home in L.A.  
  
Then again, a home is also comprised of people as well as things.  
  
Mia works in the kitchen; her domain as much as the garage and the grill are his. Vince strums his guitar lazily, eyes partially closed but ear trained on the sound of Mia’s movement. The pain in his arm and shoulder is long forgotten—a bad memory that plays no part in the day. Dom can walk right by them and not break their concentration.

The two at the table are deep in conversation, one that brings a smile to his lips and he thinks this is how things should be. Brian sits at the table, quiet and clearly contemplating, but still listening to Jesse nonetheless. Speed Racer versus Transformers, a classic child of the eighties debate. Everything is fine. Race Wars. The shooting. It all dissolves into the hazy fuzz bad dreams.  
  
He always escapes for an hour or two. Usually, it’s to the beach, where he sits and watches the waves and sun meet in a place that is beyond reach. Calming and peaceful, this is something he couldn’t imagine seeing again during those long nights in Lompoc. Nights so long and dark that no amount of sun could remove the chill that settled soul deep.

It’s quiet here, now—the sort of thing he misses in the house when he’s not alone. Brian follows him everywhere. Even Vince needs a break now and then, but Dom doesn’t mind the hovering. He likes it--in fact; it makes him feel more solid than he has in weeks, months, years if he lets the truth fly fast and free.  
  
Sometimes, he follows Brian. They sit on the beach and watch the waves. Farther up, there are surfers and Brian doesn’t have to say a word; Dom pegs him as one the first time he lays eyes on him. They sit like that enjoying the water and the sharp bite from Corona and lime. There’s an easy peace that he finds with Brian. A calm that Brian radiates constantly but especially for Dom who soaks it up to fuel this new turn towards slow and steady. That last day before his life goes boom is a dark spot that they never speak of; they don’t talk about anything in particular anyway. Brian listens when he talks about new jobs or just whatever is on Dom’s mind.  
  
Brian never pushes and Dom appreciates that. Sometimes knowing the gravity of one’s mistakes is enough.  
  
This is what comfort feels like, what things between him and Brian felt like from their first real introduction. Rough to smooth to fast, always at a pace that no one else can follow. He can say it here and know he’s not being judged. Brian doesn’t have the luxury of history to burden his judgment of Dom. He doesn’t see this as another spectacular fuck up in the long history of Dom’s spiralling mistakes. Just accepts Dom as a flawed man and dares him to do better.  
  
They all look to him as their leader. Their brother. The closest thing to a father some of them have ever had.  
  
Brian doesn’t look to him for leadership. He comes with Dom on his own accord. Saves Dom from going off the deep end constantly. He’s the only one who believes it when Dom says he’s sorry.  
  
When Dom goes home again at the end of the day, it’s as though he’s never left. He’s the observer. The stationary sun that watches the rest of the universe revolve and evolve.  
  
Vince glares at Brian and tries to bait him by calling him names. Mia yells from the kitchen. Brian offers her help if only to piss Vince off. Letty turns up the volume on the game she’s playing. Leon sits with Jesse, listening to him talk about some complicated turbo exhaust system that’s being designed at MIT or Japan, wherever. Leon’s only half listening, because his eyes focus more on Letty than the game, not that Dom hasn’t noticed.  
  
They all fit even without him.  
  
He catches a glimpse of Brian as he heads out the door. He opens his mouth to yell, to say something—but finds himself drowned out at every turn. The noise grows louder, effectively submerging his voice and his ability to change the situation.  
  
It’s always Dom who’s leaving, but not this time. He really wants Brian to stay. In his mind’s eye, he can see Brian growing smaller and smaller with every step towards the door. Then he's just watching Brian fade from view in the Supra’s rearview mirror until it all cuts to black, and it kills him a little bit every time it happens.  
  
Of all the things that he wants to change, this one seems to call to him the most. Dom is always drowned out when he tries to tell Brian to come back. Brian hears him sometimes, never the others, and still keeps going while urging Dom to come, too. The rest already have moved on without him. 

He’ll make it back to Brian and find the firm ground beneath his feet again. He just needs room to think.  
  
Because in a small house on the coast of Mexico, he can’t ever hear himself think. In an empty room, it’s always the ghosts that talk too loud.  
  
Dom has a future he needs to change, because the past weighs too heavily and haunts him constantly.  
  
“Gotta go back.” Dom says to the quiet audience of an empty room.

He doesn’t know where to look, but he’ll find Brian somewhere. He has to correct the choice he made when he left Brian behind.  
  
For the first time in months, he hears his voice echo in a room of silence. His ghosts, like Dom, are finally ready to move on, so the last thing he’ll do is wait.


End file.
